Ban shows a new UN face

The Washington Post reports that in his first news conference as United Nations Secretary-General, South Korean Ban Ki Moon refused to condemn the execution of Saddam Hussein. As he pointed out, the former Iraqi dictator "was responsible for committing heinous crimes and unspeakable atrocities against the Iraqi people," and in his view, "the issue of capital punishment is for each and every member state to decide."

While the new Secretary-General encouraged U.N. member nations to follow international standards of humanitarian law, he emphasized that he was against practices which essentially insured in his word's "impunity for the world's despots."

Seventy member states, including South Korea, regard capital punishment as lawful. Ban's position is a departure from that of his predecessor, Kofi Annan, who firmly opposed the capital punishment.